[1] L'Heureux was the author of such works of fiction as The Miracle, Having Everything, The Shrine at Altamira, Comedians, An Honorable Profession, and A Woman Run Mad.
A former Jesuit priest (he left the order in 1971) and contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly, he taught at Georgetown, Tufts, Harvard, and was a professor of English at Stanford University since 1973.
After two years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, he entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) at the age of nineteen and began his path to ordination as a priest in 1956.
"[citation needed] He explained some of the reasons behind his leaving the priesthood to The National Catholic Reporter (NCR) in an article published on 11 May 1990 to coincide with the release of his short-story collection Comedians.
His poem "from St. Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Jesuits: His Autobiography [with directions for reading]" (in No Place for Hiding, 1971) bridged verse and narrative prose.